Spare the shelters

Cutting staff at the city's already short-handed animal shelters would have disastrous results and should not even be considered an option in L.A.'s budget process. With today's shaky economy, including the foreclosure crisis and soaring gas prices, shelters are taking in record numbers of animals for whom people can no longer care. Meanwhile, adoptions are at an all-time low. There could not be a less responsible time to reduce staff and resources at the city's animal shelters.

It is no fault of animals that people breed and sell them for profit, thoughtlessly buy them and then throw them away. It would be nothing short of cruel to make L.A.'s discarded animals pay for the city's overspending in other areas of its multibillion-dollar budget.

Daphna

Nachminovitch

Norfolk, Va.

The writer is vice president of the cruelty investigations department for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.